The authors used data from the Add Health study to estimate the effects of parents' marital status and relationship distress on daughters' early family formation transitions. Outcomes included traditional transitions (marriage and marital births) and nontraditional transitions (cohabitation and nonmarital births). Relationship distress among…

Since the 1970s, the share of U.S. children growing up in single-parent families has doubled, a trend that has disproportionately affected disadvantaged families. Paul Amato and Rebecca Maynard argue that reversing that trend would reduce poverty in the short term and, perhaps more important, improve children's growth and development over the long…

Compared 21 widowed mothers, 21 divorced mothers, and 21 married mothers on material, personal, family, and social well-being. Found that, compared with married mothers, divorced mothers revealed consistently lower levels of economic well-being, widowed mothers tended to have lower levels of personal well-being. Discusses implications for…